We had a lot of self inflicted wounds. The snaps really hurt today. I’m not even going to address the officiating......if you want to say that the fumble recovery was the “correct” call by definition, then someone explain how his helmet came off in the first place. And the jumping of the center that also burned a timeout was legendary epic AWFUL OFFICIATING!!! At such an impactful moment.....that’s beyond ridiculous.

Sure we should have won anyway really.......we made them one dimensional like we needed to, and really should have finished this game off with a win. This one is tough to swallow.

Having just returned home it is interesting to note what has been said on the site. Our team played, IMO, it's best game of the year. Anyone who denies that Joe Newman is fantastic running our offense has no clue. There were several key turning points in the game. 1) Our time management in the second quarter when we had the ball heading down the stretch toward halftime was horrendous. We had a great chance to get into the locker room up 7-0 and receiving the second half kick. If you want to go back and check the game online you will see that we could have burned another 30-60 seconds easily and give Sammy very little time. Instead, it appeared we choked and couldn't decide whether we were trying to score or run clock. 2) The "no fumble/penalty" was a correct call. It just was one of the worst pieces of luck you can have. I watched Tyler on the play, and he quit immediately when the helmet came off. However, the ball came out and rolled to his feet. When he dropped down I actually thought he was doing it to not be called for keeping going (I didn't see the ball come out). Just bum luck. 3) I think Newman thought he was throwing the ball over the receiver's head on the interception. He, and Goodson, had thrown balls all day that only our guy could catch or go incomplete. We had to throw on that third down, since we were out of time. Blame someone if you wish, but our team did a great job of getting from our own 10 to their 20 in a little over a minute clock time. The frustration comes from the way we chose to play defense. We were willing most of the game to rush only 3 players, and on occasion 4. Rarely did we blitz, but when we did it was fairly successful. It seems obvious that if you gave their QB time he was going to be successful. If you blitz they MAY beat you; but if you rush 3 it seemed definite they WERE going to beat you. I thought our players did a fantastic job of playing on both sides of the ball. We had two unfortunate turnovers by normally sure handed backs at the start of the third quarter. I felt sorry for Roo. I watched him interact with Goodson after the high snaps, and it was obvious he was doing everything he could. When he had the problems with the direct snaps I watched him finally take himself out. He knew he was hurting the team, and it was painful to watch. Samford is good, but I think we would like to play them again. Our guys were ready to play coming out for the start, and the coaches are to be praised for that. This was a much better Wofford team today than many of our earlier games.By the way, did anyone ever get a legitimate explanation on the encroachment no call/Time Out? Using the last TO was something that really limited us at the end.

The team did a great job of giving themselves a chance to win despite everything that happened with shooting themselves in the foot a few times. The calls at the end/lack of holding calls sucked but that's the way it goes sometimes.

This game was a good test for the team and glad we got this out of the way now instead of in the playoffs. If round 2 happens between these teams it'll be another epic slugfest and exciting to watch.

It sounds like I’m a broken record here but I blame this one on the coaches. Roo Daniel is a warrior but he had no business playing in the second half. Remember, he’s coming off surgery on his wrist a couple weeks ago. 6 snaps were fumbled and all day the snaps were off when he was in and that somewhat ruined his rhythm. It’s not his fault for trying to tough it out (he took himself out in the third quarter). It’s the coaches fault for not recognizing a clear trend until it was way too late. Despite these bad snaps we averaged something like 5 yards a carry. Jerasaty is a proven commodity. I’m not disappointed that we let them throw the ball all over the yard on us, it’s who they are. I’m disappointed that we did absolutely idiotic play calls on fourth down and with Roo. Why pass on fourth and 3 when we average 5 yards a carry? That endzone INT was a situation Newman shouldn’t have been in. Why go for it in your own territory up 7 when your defense is playing lights out?

And yet in spite all of that we were in it at the end. The coaches are obviously good at coaching fundamentals but once again they tried to get too cute and it cost us a game.

I’m frustrated because you legitimately can’t blame the players or Roo for this one. It’s squarely on the offensive coaches for mismanaging the offense. In the first half we had a fumble on 3 possessions that set us off schedule, resulting in a punt or turnover on down. That halfback pass on third and long that was a fumble was dumb. We have an intermediate pass attack, no need to get fancy.

We have great players and great coaches but until we get our act together in a broad strategic sense we’re not going to be competitive for a national title. It’s frustrating to watch because we have the talent but something has changed in how we operate from the top in the last 5 years or so. Not all of it is bad but a good 60% of it looks like the kid playing Madden and trying to run up the score in a needless fashion with poor execution to make it look like a train wreck

Ditto all that YT mentioned. Add in the fact that we have a kicker who has been nailing kicks for 6 games now. Although I like the change of Newman I hate the fact that the kid who has pulled off last minute drives all season for us was on the bench. Rolling Newman out to run or pass should have been the only option. Also in first half instead of 30+ or so yard FG attempt we go for it and fail with a fade route.

Defensively didn't understand the personel changes or the lack of adjustments at halftime. Also Jireh and Vinning were limited to little or no playing time. The teams inspirational leaders and play makers. Our DL is being scape goated, but I think the lack of pressure is due to poor schemes. With the LB Corp and expierence we have at the position you would expect all kinds of blitz packages and DL stunts.

Incorporate all you mentioned above with poor officiating and poor clock management, it was amazing we were even in the game at the end.

Having watched the game again virtually nothing was different except that I still don't know what happend near the end when their nose tackle jumped the snap. We lost two yards and a down and had to call a time out, in addition to losing enough time that we may not have had to throw that interception. It was bizarre, to say the least.However, what I had thought in person was in fact true. Our offensive clock management at the end of the first half GAVE Samford a touchdown. When we had the ball beginning our last drive that could have run out the clock and given us a 7-0 halftime lead and the second half kickoff we snapped the ball regularly with about 10 seconds on the play clock. Then, when we had driven it out of our end and gotten it in the midfield range we started snapping it with nearly 15 second left. On our last possession we snapped at 15, 16 and 15 seconds. Any reasonable clock management would have either run out the clock or given the ball the them with about one play left. We threw incomplete on third and 10 before we punted, which probably used up a half minute or more. If you contrast that with eh Samford clock management on their last possession you watch them run the clock down inside five seconds on every snap once it became apparent that they didn't want to give it back to us with time on the clock. We just don't look as if we have assistants or even student assistants who are charged with thinking ahead. Even or our last possession we didn't seem prepared to run the next play. It was executed well, but we were never ready to clock the ball or run a play without checking with the sidelines. Given what I re-watched I am somewhat amazed that we came as close as we did to winning or tying that game. We made a bunch of big plays on offense to keep drives going that we had virtually stopped ourselves on. By the way, didn't McAfee do that "sideline" thing in an earlier game-where he got the ball and went out of bounds on what would have been a penalty on them?I had thought that Goodson may have lost the ball near the goal line by reaching, but it was a clean strip by the defender. The halfback pass was blown up early and the ball should have been eaten. By the way, Tyler's helmet was torn off his head, but I have never seen that called. Come on, coaches, you need to get your act together. These guys deserve better than what you gave them Saturday.

WocoSix wrote:Ditto all that YT mentioned. Add in the fact that we have a kicker who has been nailing kicks for 6 games now. Although I like the change of Newman I hate the fact that the kid who has pulled off last minute drives all season for us was on the bench. Rolling Newman out to run or pass should have been the only option. Also in first half instead of 30+ or so yard FG attempt we go for it and fail with a fade route.

Defensively didn't understand the personel changes or the lack of adjustments at halftime. Also Jireh and Vinning were limited to little or no playing time. The teams inspirational leaders and play makers. Our DL is being scape goated, but I think the lack of pressure is due to poor schemes. With the LB Corp and expierence we have at the position you would expect all kinds of blitz packages and DL stunts.

Incorporate all you mentioned above with poor officiating and poor clock management, it was amazing we were even in the game at the end.

Out of curiosity, does anyone know what our numbers were for sacks and tackles for loss?

To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.
-Theodore Roosevelt

Appears we played well; turning it over too much was our downfall. Getting the 34 yard field goal at the end, or a quick out route to get closer, may have been the way to go, in hindsight, since we could not realistically pass it short of the goal line and try to run it in. Newman was really elusive at times, and Goodson played well too.

It would have only been a 34 yard field goal if we attempted it on the last play of the game? I though it would have been longer than that, like 40-something yards. Memory can be faulty at times I guess. If that’s indeed the case then I would have attempted the FG- the odds Luke Cater makes it from 34 are pretty good. Then we take our chances in OT.

I rechecked. We were on the 19 yard line so it would have been a 36 yard FG try. That, or a quick out and FG, gave us the best chance to win.

BTW, from the film it is 90% clear that on the earlier play our center was hit before he snapped it, and it should have been a penalty on the D; they did it to get us out of FG range ... smart play if you can get away with it. That no-call cost us ten yards (five we lost and five from the no-call), the possible benefit from the play that would have been run, and more importantly our momentum and last time out.